MoD to release Nimrod report
Updated on 04 December 2007
The Ministry of Defence will release a report into the biggest single loss of British forces since the Falklands War.
An RAF Nimrod plane exploded in Afghanistan in September last year, shortly after air-to-air refuelling. All 14 people on board were killed.
The MoD has always defended the plane's safety record after concerns about fuel leaks and questions over cost pressures.
It has been widely reported that a fire broke out in the bomb bay following a fuel leak.
If that is confirmed when Defence Secretary Des Browne announces the findings of the Board of Inquiry in a statement to MPs, it will lead to fresh questions as to why the aircraft was allowed to carry on flying.
The RAF is already facing accusations that it ignored repeated warnings that the Nimrod MR2 had a history of dangerous fuel leaks.
The aircraft's manufacturers, BAE Systems, were reported to have advised in 2004 that fire extinguishers were fitted in the bomb bays, although this was apparently not taken up by the Ministry of Defence.
A maintenance report by the defence technology company, Qinetiq, in March 2006 was said to have highlighted the problems of fuel leaks on the MR2s - particularly aircraft flying intensive operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Earlier this year Graham Knight, the father of Sergeant Ben Knight, one of the servicemen killed in the crash, released a series of leaked emails, which he said came from senior RAF officers.
One, dated December 2005, said that XV230 had "fuel-leak issues" which needed to be rectified, while another from February last year warned that the age of the airframe combined with the high tempo of operations was adding to the "leak headache".
The Nimrod MR1 - which is based on the design of Britain's first airliner, the de Havilland Comet - first entered service with the RAF in 1969, and was upgraded to the MR2 version in the late 1970s.
The existing fleet of 15 aircraft had originally been due to leave service a decade ago, but a series of lengthy delays to their replacement - the Nimrod MR4A - mean that they will have to carry on to around 2011.
